Mumbai citizens “humbly request” Anna to hold his fast on the outskirts of Mumbai

Several prominent citizens of Mumbai under the banner of the Citizens Action Forum have ‘humbly reqested’ Anna Hazare to hold his fast and protest on the outskirts of Mumbai instead of the MMRDA grounds at Bandra or the Azad Maidan in southern Mumbai city.

Flynn Remedios, spokesperson for the Citizens Action Forum said, “Mumbai is already congested and most Mumbaikars find it very difficult to reach their place of work on time. The local train network is already choc-a-bloc and lakhs of commuters who come in from as far as Virar and Ambernath on the Central and Western Railway lines are packed like sardines during the peak hours.  If thousands of people gather at the Bandra Kurla grounds or even Azad Maidan for the protest, the local train network will snap. Mumbaikars – who fully support Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement – will be greatly inconvenienced and this could also hamper the protest as the Government may find it an excuse to put restrictions on Anna’s campaign. There will be a law and order problem, besides drinking water and sanitation requirements are not available at both the venues. We request Anna to reconsider his decision to hold the protest and fast in Mumbai and instead move the venue to the outskirts of Mumbai or some other adjacent place. Since Mumbai is high on the list of terrorists, a large number of people gathering at one venue adds to the security threat to the city.”

BMC Elections 2012: MP Milind Deora’s official website has no contact details

Youth leader very difficult to reach, say many.

By Flynn Remedios – MumbaiWire.in

Dynamic Minister of State for Communications and IT, youth leader and South Mumbai MP Milind Deora’s official website at milinddeora dot com does not have any contact details or office address. MumbaiWire.in tried contacting Milind Deora for an interview regarding the forthcoming BMC elections in Mumbai but in spite of three days of effort trying to track Milind Deora we were unable to reach him. We understand that as MoS for Communications and IT, Mr Deora is very busy meeting the likes of Mukesh Ambani and others, but we wish Mr Deora had mentioned at least an email id on his website which we could communicate with him on. Even the Youth Forum option on the website does not work, unless one is logged into Facebook.

Comparatively, older and senior Congress leaders were more ‘reachable’ than the younger lot, MumbaiWire.in has found out in its pre-poll research.

MumbaiWire Ms & Mrs Mumbai to be held on Dec 23

The glamour event MumbaiWire Ms & Mrs Mumbai beauty pageant and fashion show will be held at a 5-star hotel at Goregaon on the 23^rd December and will be graced by the who’s-who of the fashion and film industry in Mumbai. Announcing this event, Flynn Remedios of MumbaiWire said, “We have been associated with the Miss Mumbai event for the last 20 years, which was originally started by media baron Nari Hira of the Magna group. It used to be sponsored by Island magazine – where I worked and have very fond memories of – and we wanted to revive the glamour event. This year we will have two categories one for married and one for unmarried contestants. The age range for the unmarried category is 17-27 years while that for the married category is 18-38 years.” The glamour event is being organised by http://www.MumbaiWire.in, a news blog and portal for and by Mumbaikars with an eye on the BMC Elections 2012.

Sources said that top Bollywood actors and former actors including Sonali Bendre, Bipasha Basu and Madhuri Dixit have been approached to grace and judge the beauty pageant.  Elaborating on the event, Flynn Remedios said, “Since the BMC elections are scheduled to be held in February 2012 and Mumbai has 227 wards, we will request each of the 227 wards to send two contestants – one in each category for the event.”

Fashion designer and stylist Umair Zafar is the official stylist for the event. More details will be released shortly, said Remedios adding that the entire event will be filmed and telecast on a TV channel at a later date. A Reality Show wherein the 20 finalists will be “jailed” together will also be part of the event.

MumbaiWire.in report finds MP Gurudas Kamat most “people friendly”

Online Media to play a major role in forthcoming BMC elections 2012

By Frank Franklyn – MumbaiWire.in

Member of Parliament from the Mumbai North West constituency Gurudas Kamat is one of the most “people friendly, proactive and approachable” politicians, a MumbaiWire poll has revealed. Surprisingly and contrary to expectations, the newer and younger lot of politicians does not fare well in the MumbaiWire poll. “Younger politicians are not as approachable and proactive as may be expected. Probably, they lack the farsightedness of a seasoned politician and leader like Gurudas Kamat,” said Flynn Remedios of MumbaiWire.  As part of its special citizen awareness initiatives for the forthcoming BMC Elections 2012, MumbaiWire announced that it will present a “Report Card” on each MP, MLA and Corporator in Mumbai.

“We are working with about 20 NGOs and other Civic Action Groups and have over 2000 activist-volunteers who are helping us in this exercise. These 2000 volunteers who are from different wards in Mumbai and cover the entire gamut of 227 seats will report their findings to our central “Evaluation Committee” which will then prepare a “Report Card” on each person.

This election, online media and social viral networking will play a major role and social networking sites like Facebook will be extensively used to reach out to younger voters, explains Remedios, stating that SMS messaging has already been used in the past with candidates shooting out lakhs of messages to voters in the earlier elections. Sadly most corporators and MLAs do not have their own websites and whatever data is available on their work is only on sites run by NGOs. Corporators should focus on online media and put updates of their work online. Given the fact that mobile internet is very cheap in Mumbai with special schemes offering unlimited mobile internet access for as little as Rs 50 a month, candidates should go online, and create micro sites for their constituency. It is very easy and simple to create a micro site or a simple blog-driven website that can be used to highlight the work done by a sitting corporator. Unfortunately, politicians prefer to put up big (and illegal) hoardings in their constituencies with their mugs glaring at viewers but will not spend some money on online media,” laments Remedios.

MumbaiWire will host micro updates from local Mumbai corporators on its Facebook page and Twitter accounts to keep Mumbaikars updated of the work done by their corporators. It will also similarly report on citizens complaints of promises unfulfilled and false commitments made by corporate on its news blog to give citizens a crystal clear picture of each corporators performance.